Ismene Brown talks to Akram Khan about the weeks leading up to this exciting multi-arts event.

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DANCE, sculpture, music, married on equal terms by three of the outstanding practitioners in Britain, promise to make Kaash the highlight of British performance art in 2002. The brilliant choreographer Akram Khan, the world-renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor and the award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney have been working for three months on an ambitious one-hour dance event that reaches back to the days when Picasso and Ravel would collaborate with Cocteau and Nijinska on dances for the Ballets Russes.

Akram Khan Company, Kaash (If...)<BR>Brighton Corn Exchange, 6 April 2002<P>Akram Khan brings an arresting energy to the stage, as you might expect from someone who has injected the British dance scene with a jolt of fresh talent. The UK premiere of Kaash is the culmination of a collaboration between Khan, composer Nitin Sawhney and sculptor Anish Kapoor - an invincible trio in the realm of artistic innovation. While Khan's collaborators may we more well-known than he is, it is his choreography and performers who really provide the juice to electrify this hour-long piece.<P>Kapoor's backdrop is dominated by a dense black rectangle, a blank void and an unknowable dimension behind the world we are being presented onstage. Rothko-esque, its blurred frame seems to pulse, sometimes glowing red, sometimes stark monochrome. It is a very stylish production; dancers dressed in asymmetrically cut, granite-flecked tunics and slim trousers, with muscular frames, quick feet and impassioned eyes. It could be and Arts Council trophy piece; modern, multimedia, multicultural and very good looking.<P>While Kapoor's set provides a monumental presence, Sawhney's score is an agile partner to the movement. Ferocious tablas keep an incessant pulse, accents jarring and driving the dance. Later the musician's voice will be the instrument, speaking the tala (rhythmic patterns) to single syllables with one prescribed movement for each beat. Developing and extending the rhythm with the dancing bodies amplifying the structure into three dimensions.<P>Trained in North Indian Kathak dancing, Khan has merged its shapes and rhythms with contemporary dance resulting in a fusion with a real kick. The movements are strong, curt, cutting and precise. Slicing at diagonals yet seamlessly fluid. Propelled by arms and upper bodies, you can feel their resistance against the air, or perhaps against an invisible combatant in a silent battle of nerve.<P>Much of the power comes from the exceptionally tight ensemble, meticulously drilled in manoeuvres, despite an injury in the company meaning replacement Maho Ihara had only two days to rehearse the piece. The five dancers move in strict unison before one breaks away to test their individualism, returning to the group, but then splintering into pairs and trios. The dancers don't partner each other, they dance as one, often facing the audience. Everyone is driven on by the same invisible force, and the audience are equally swept forward in this progression, engaged in the energy of the performers – beating in synch. <P>The second section introduces the 'If...' of the title. We hear spoken phrases on reflection and possibility together with a more lyrical choreography. 'If you don't like what you see don't look', they say. 'If the whole world followed me, would it like where I took them?' Well we do like what we see, and we can't wait to follow Khan's next journey.<P>

I've moved this earlier post by Emma here.<P>************************<P>This Obeserver article discusses his planned collaboration in 2202 with Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhey.<P><B>Akram Khan's reputation as an innovative director-choreographer will be burnished in 2002 by Kaash, a collaboration with Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney </B><P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>'I can't think of two people with whom I'd rather explore these ideas creatively,' says Akram Khan. He is speaking of his forthcoming collaboration with the artist Anish Kapoor and composer Nitin Sawhney. It is a testament to Khan's swift rise as a director-choreographer (he formed his five-strong company only a year ago) that his chosen collaborators have made space in busy schedules to work with him on Kaash, for May 2002. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,625617,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P>

Article in The Evening Standard.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Time, time, time. There just isn't enough time." It may not sound like it, but Akram Khan is having a very good year. At the age of 27, the young dancer/choreographer has won more awards and has more work than just about anyone else in the British dance world. He is the Royal Festival Hall's choreographer-in-residence, which provides the sort of connections and support that other young dance-makers can only envy, while his charismatic stage presence reduces normally hardened critics to tears. He has his pick of dancers, designers and musicians, and a tour schedule that would make rock bands blush. <P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/theatre/dance_review.html?in_review_id=541796&in_review_text_id=537982" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A><P>And in The Independent.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>This work isn't trying to say anything," says South Bank choreographer-in-residence Akram Khan. "I have nothing to say." That's not strictly true.<P>Talk for 45 minutes to Khan and his current collaborator, the Mercury Prize-nominated musician Nitin Sawhney, and your head will spin (mine did) with how much the pair have to say: about dance, about physics, about Hindu mythology. But is their conversation entirely comprehensible? Ah, well that's a different matter. <BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/features/story.jsp?story=290027" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A><p>[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited May 02, 2002).]

Review in The Guardian.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>On paper, Akram Khan's latest work sounded poised between dream and nightmare. Not only was this 55-minute project designed to incorporate the creative egos of British-Asian collaborators Nitin Sawhney (music) and Anish Kapoor (visuals), it had also been given a massive cargo of ideas to support: creation theories ranging from Hindu mythology to modern physics. One dance surely couldn't make sense of all that. And yet on stage, the first 20 minutes of Kaash (the Hindu word for if) turns out to be almost as good as collaboration can get. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,3604,714377,00.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Review in The Telegraph.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>WITH his burning talents - his brilliance of movement, his acute musical sensitivity, and his questing mind - Akram Khan has, at only 27, become a comet on the horizon not just of dance but of the arts generally. For Kaash, his first "full-length" piece (at 55 minutes), he has been able to call upon the Turner Prize-winning sculptor Anish Kapoor and the Mercury Prize-winning composer Nitin Sawhney as partners on it. <P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/05/14/bmsaw14.xml&sSheet=/arts/2002/05/14/ixartleft.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Review in The Times.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>WITH collaborators like this it was bound to be good. Providing the sound was Nitin Sawhney, a composer of exotic adventure. Providing the setting was the Turner Prize-winning sculptor Anish Kapoor, a creator of beautiful artistic visions. Add to the mix the fascinating young choreographer Akram Khan and you have a trio of artists guaranteed to make something special happen. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,685-296677,00.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Review in The Independent.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>If anybody thought that the opening moments of Kaash were too exciting to be sustained, they were wrong. If anybody thought that Kaash – Hindi for "if", like Kipling's most famous poem – sounded just too abstrusely foreign, they were also wrong. And if anybody thought that 27-year-old Akram Khan, the Royal Festival Hall choreographer-in-residence, had overstretched himself by entering into an ambitious collaboration for his company's first full-evening piece, then Kaash emerges as an equal and magnificent association of forms. The dance, the coloured projections by the Turner Prize-winner Anish Kapoor, the score by Nitin Sawhney and the lighting by Aideen Malone mesh together to hit you head-on and resound in your mind long after.<P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/theatre/reviews/story.jsp?story=295298" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A>

Review in the Sunday Times. (please scroll down the article)<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Ideas of creation and destruction, the nature of the universe, the power of Shiva, lie behind the work, we are told. I found this more confusing than helpful, but there is a powerful sense of a mysterious world controlled by a magnetic force. Kapoor’s decor, a black rectangle framed by white, washed by Aideen Malone’s subtle lighting, pulses and sucks at us like a black hole. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-297469,00.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A><P>And in The Observer.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>This is the way the universe starts, with a whisper and a BANG. Akram Khan has taken on the beginning and end of all things in Kaash, a dark star of a dance. A miracle was expected of his collaboration with composer Nitin Sawhney and sculptor Anish Kapoor: I predicted in January that this would be the event of the year, with dance going beyond navel-gazing to contemplating the parallels between modern physics and ancient Hindu mythology. <P><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,718015,00.html" TARGET=_blank> <B> MORE </B> </A><p>[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited May 19, 2002).]

<B>Shiva Pitch</B><BR>With a blend of traditional Indian moves and modern turns, Akram Khan has taken British dance by storm. Ellie Carr in The sunday Herald talks to him as he prepares to bring his new work Kaash to Scotland.<BR> <P>Hindu gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction. Just a few of the inspirations behind Kaash, the latest work by British-Asian dance star Akram Khan. So it's surprising when he insists: 'I have nothing to say. I just go into the studio and do what I do.' <BR>Actually Khan has plenty to say. F

Akram weaves his magic in Ireland:<P><B>Akram Khan Project</B><BR>By Michael Seaver in The Irish Times<P><BR>You enter gradually the world of Akram Khan. As the audience squeezes into the packed rows of seats at Project, a short film, Loose in Flight, is projected on to the back wall of the stage. The house lights are still up so there is no real obligation to watch, but those who do are treated to a taster of Khan's extraordinary solo dancing.<BR> <BR>Next, Khan himself arrives onstage, accompanied by tabla player Vishnu Sahai, who plays an improvisation based on nine and a half beats. All of this gently and subtly gives a flavour of and context for Khan's dances.<P>Drawing influences from the classic northern Indian dance genre, Kathak, and blending them with western contemporary dance, Khan creates a unique hybrid language. The elements of Kathak are obvious: upright stance and fluid flowing lines in the body.<P><A HREF="http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2002/0522/3332651019ATKHAN.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

<B>Kaash on the money</B><BR>By Ellie Carr in The Sunday Herald (Scotland)<BR> <P>Akram Khan is one of those rare performers who steal your gaze from the minute they step on stage and keep it prisoner until they exit. Just seconds into the Scottish premiere of his latest work Kaash, it is patently obvious why the 27-year-old British Asian is being hailed as the best thing to happen in British dance since Michael Clark.<BR>Whether he (unlike the self-destructive Clark) will fulfil his early promise remains to be seen. But this show is easily the biggest test of his talent to date -- not least because it rests on so much more than his prodigious ability to perform his own thrilling fusion of modern and kathak styles.<P><A HREF="http://www.sundayherald.com/24908" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>**********************************<P><B>Akram Khan Company</B> <BR>By KELLY APTER in The Scotsman <P><BR>THE sound of Nitin Sawhney’s throbbing bass fills the air. The spiralling blackness of Anish Kapoor’s backdrop draws us into its depth. On the stage, one of Britain’s most talented young dancers cross-fertilises Eastern and Western culture, old and new.<P>This is Kaash, the first full-length group show from Akram Khan, a choreographer who has taken the 500-year-old Indian Kathak form into another realm, via contemporary dance and amazing technique.<P>Khan’s inspiration is the Hindu god Shiva, an all-powerful being who can both create and destroy. And, while the moves themselves form no kind of narrative, there’s a definite sense of something being stripped away and rebuilt.<P><A HREF="http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/entertainment.cfm?id=566242002" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P><BR>

Massive kathak He’s bringing Indian dance to the people. Clifford Bishop for The Sunday Times on the flat-footed genius of Akram Khan.

They’re quite reptilian,” says Akram Khan, lifting up a foot and spreading his toes into a wide, gecko-like fan. “And very flat. All kathak dancers have flat feet.” This information comes as no surprise: when Khan starts to practise, his bare size eights drum up a maelstrom that would make Lear at his storm-taunting craziest duck for cover. I am sitting more than 30ft away, and when I put down a cup of tea for an instant, the surface erupts into a matrix of violently shifting peaks and troughs. It is like being in Jurassic Park, with patterns.

The sole-flattening fusillades of stamping — improvised, unpredictable, but always precisely tailored to a recurring cycle of 11 or, most often, 16 beats — alternate with whirlwind spins that freeze, suddenly, into the stillest of temple-statue poses. Even in the antiseptic environment of a rehearsal studio, it looks dazzling, but Khan is less than satisfied.

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